Midseason Guide – pre-release this coming Friday, full release the day after. Buy it here

Jonas Gustavsson is starting tonight for the Leafs.

Michael Leighton has been fantastic for the Flyers, and Ray Emery is back skating with the team. Speculation has the Flyers waiving Brian Boucher when Emery is back and ready to go.

I made a point last week about looking in to the full effects of coaching changes on NHL teams. Metaldude26 has one-upped me and done the analysis himself! Great stuff for all poolies – check it out here!

Dobber’s Top 300 Fantasy Players will be up later today. Sorry for the delay!

Demitra is continuing to skate with the Canucks and is getting close. Two weeks is the latest update. Expect him to slide in on a line with Raymond and Kesler upon his return.

Davis Payne has been named the interim head coach for St. Louis. This move will benefit every single Blue from a fantasy perspective. Murray has a treck record of being tuned out after a few seasons, and this appears to be the case once again here with St. Louis. I don’t know much about Payne or his coaching style (he did win an ECHL championship in 2006), but expect him to put more trust in and give a longer leash to the younger Blues, like Johnson (a recent healthy scratch), Perron, Oshie, and Berglund.

Brad Lukowich cleared waivers for Vancouver. It appears Mathieu Schneider was sent home by the team, and didn’t leave on his own terms. He has a history of off-ice issues (he feuded with Patrick Roy in Montreal), and it appears he wore out his welcome very quickly with the Canucks this season.

Dobber here – The writing was on the wall – great news for fantasy hockey fans. Andy Murray has been fired.  Let the scoring begin! Angus will talk more on this later today.

Happy holidays! I took a brief hiatus from the ramblings over the last week or so, but am back now and ready to rock!

I was down in Phoenix and caught the Canucks/Coyotes game on the 29^th. After visiting the Jobing.com arena, I can see why the NHL wants to keep the team in Glendale. The area around the arena is absolutely amazing – the football stadium is next door, there are dozens of bars and shops, and it has a very Vegas-like feel. Crowd was pretty big too, although a significant portion of it was transplanted Vancouverites or those on vacation (like me).

The Americans announced their roster for the Olympics yesterday. On paper, they will be heavy underdogs. The team is young, fast, and gritty, though. There were some questionable picks (Drury being the most noticeable), and some glaring omissions (Brian Gionta, but that may just be me). I'll have thorough Olympic coverage as February approaches.

Ilya Kovalchuk recorded his 600^th career point yesterday. He has played in only 579 career games, most of those with a lousy Atlanta club.

The Bruins have signed Miroslav Satan. I'll have a breakdown of what this means later on today. I have a hunch he will be playing with Savard on the top line.

Olli Jokinen is on pace for 14 goals and 55 points. Not exactly the kind of production you would expect in a contract year…

I wrote an article two years ago about Zach Parise and the "it" factor. Essentially it was about hockey smarts, intelligence, and awareness being underrated traits, and very useful at spotting future superstars. Physical traits (size, speed) can often be overcome if players make up for it by simply being hockey smart. Parise is one, Crosby is obviously one, others are guys like David Booth who simply don't quit on any plays

Nothing official, but it sounds like Bieksa will be out for around eight weeks with his second significant leg cut in three years. He wasn't doing much offensively this season, and this all but kills his value this season. Christian Ehrhoff has leapt past him offensively. The Canucks have recalled Brad Lukowich on waivers, but I personally doubt he sneaks through. We will know tomorrow morning.

Derek Roy returned to the Buffalo lineup, and scored the OT winner in the process. Roy is a streaky producer, so keep an eye on him. Buffalo's top guns have all been under whelming offensively this season, and something eventually as to give.

I’ll have numerous updates about the busy Saturday schedule up around 2pm EST tomorrow, in addition to the Satan article. As always, comment away with any tidbits or pieces of news that I have missed or you want me to cover.

The Top 150 Hitters are up over at DobberBaseball. Have a look.